Frankenmuth brings steel from World Trade Center as part of a memorial

View full sizeJeff Schrier | The Saginaw NewsPeople examine a twisted steel girder from the World Trade Center after a ceremony at the Frankenmuth Fire Department, 210 W. Genesee in Frankenmuth. The ceremony was held to mark the arrival of a 10-foot-long, 930-pound twisted piece of steel from the World Trade Center in New York. Two Frankenmuth firefighters drove to New York to pick up the girder that will eventually be housed in a monument in honor of the 9/11 attacks of nearly ten years ago. Around 125 people attended the ceremony.

FRANKENMUTH — Standing in front of the Frankenmuth Fire Department, Tom Stasik was brought back to nearly 10 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's unreal at the way it's twisted and bent around there," Stasik said.

Stasik, 64, of Frankenmuth was one of about 125 people who spent their Friday evening listening to several speakers, including volunteer firefighters Eric MacKinnon and Ethan Crichton, who had traveled since Wednesday morning to pick up the steel piece and bring it back to Frankenmuth.

"It's unreal how time flies," said Stasik, a Purple Heart veteran from the Vietnam War.

For MacKinnon, a 24-year-old claims adjuster, the experience was special.

"We're a tourism town, and it'll allow people that do come around here to see it," he said, "not just from our town but around the country and around the world."

The two firefighters took a Frankenmuth city truck to New York City in order to bring the steel back. The piece was given to Frankenmuth through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has distributed more than 900 artifacts from the the World Trade Center.

View full sizeJeff Schrier | The Saginaw NewsCarson Waites, 13, right, son of Lori and Chris Waites of Frankenmuth, a Boy Scout with Troop 255, plays taps to end a ceremony at the Frankenmuth Fire Department, 210 W. Genesee in Frankenmuth. The ceremony was held to mark the arrival of a 10-foot-long, 930-pound twisted piece of steel from the World Trade Center in New York. Two Frankenmuth firefighters drove to New York to pick up the girder that will eventually be housed in a monument in honor of the 9/11 attacks of nearly ten years ago. Around 125 people attended the ceremony.

A memorial will be built around the piece of steel, but city officials have yet to decide how to build the monument, MacKinnon said.

About 12 Boy Scouts from Troops 255 and 275, both of Frankenmuth, attended the event, standing in the front of the crowd, and one scout led "Taps" to end the ceremony.

Michael Kazyak, 59, is scout leader for Troop 255.

"It just parallels what scouting is all about," he said. "Service to your country."

Frankenmuth Fire Chief John P. Deterding called the trip for MacKinnon and Crichton an "experience they will never forget."

"It would be very humbling just to see (the pieces of the building)," Deterding said.

MacKinnon and Crichton were able to visit Ground Zero and also the Freedom Tower, which
stands 1,776 feet tall near where the World Trade Center was.

For Stasik, who served in the Navy from 1966-68, thinking about what some of the firefighters went through saving people on that day 10 years ago brought him back to his time in Vietnam.

"I just think of the people that were friends of mine that were injured and lost," he said. "You just thank God you did make it through, and it makes you think about what might have been."